


Trust

by Briarfox13



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Bonding, Cute, F/M, Feelings, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briarfox13/pseuds/Briarfox13
Summary: Set after the altercation with Akksul on Havarl
Relationships: Jaal Ama Darav/Female Ryder | Sara, Jaal Ama Darav/Ryder
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	Trust

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the altercation with Akksul on Havarl

She sits on that see-through bridge and dangles her legs below, gently swinging them to some unknown tune. Head bent low, as though watching the world beneath her feet with great interest, but Jaal knows that it is more than that, that it is a sign of pain in Merrin.

A sign that the world is becoming too much for the fragile human to take, so she takes solace in the empty corridors of her new home. He sits beside Merrin copying her pose, legs swaying in time with hers.

She looks up with those blue eyes Jaal feels he could get lost in if he stared for a second too long. The skin around them is red and her face pale, but despite that, she still smiles warmly at him. No hint of what anxiety rules her head, only joy at seeing a friend.

“Are you okay?” The question hangs in the air between them for what feels like an eternity. Jaal nods slowly, he is okay. All the events on Havarl have quietened in his mind, now more memories than events. The anger has gone, only regret remains.

So many had rallied to Akksul’s cause, ready to die fighting. Corrupted and turned from their mothers, father and siblings. Jaal feels the whisper of the rage he felt that day they confronted the renegade for stealing his sisters and brothers.  
  


...................

Ryder watches him, head cocked and bright eyes watching. She envies him and their large family-hers are gone, dead and buried. Her mother on Earth, her father on a strange alien world. Not even her twin wakes, he lies asleep and dreaming. A tear escapes as she wishes her family were here.

She is all alone in this world, no one to guide her to her newfound title.

Pathfinder. The word tastes so foreign in her mouth that it burns. Surely, she cannot be it? Be the one to find humanity a home. Why not Cora? She was trained from the beginning to follow in Alec’s footsteps, not her. Not anxious Merrin who jumps at the sight of her own shadow.

But then came Jaal, an alien who took a risk to help his people. He who jumped aboard to help her search the stars. He taught her about worlds unknown and together they brought life to cluster once more.

A gentle cough brings Ryder crashing down to reality.

Finally, she replies.

“Promise? I do worry about you. That was a lot to go through, to see your siblings shot and lead astray like that?”

Concern laces her voice as she shifts closer to the Angaran. Jaal laughs careful placing his hand next to hers, fingers almost touching.

“I promise Merrin”

She has always thought the sound of her voice on his tongue was like honey, sweet and tender. Just the sound of it made her melt.

“Thank you.”

“What for?” Merrin asked curiously swinging her legs.

“For helping, few of your people who have gone into…” Jaal pauses searching for the right human idiom to apply. “…the wasp nest to save a stranger’s family”

“But you aren’t a stranger, you are my friend. If I can help you save your family when I could not save mine, then I think that is good”

Jaal turns to stare Merrin in the face, such sad beauty behind her eyes. He can almost feel the anxiety radiating off her.

“Then that makes you family, Pathfinder” he whispered with a smile.

The human grins back, red blossoming across her cheeks and nods slightly.

Family, she liked the sound of that.

They sit like that for what seems like an aeon talking of siblings and parents, learning more about each other than they ever thought possible. Ryder has stopped crying and laughs as Jaal tells tall stories of his adventurous youth.

Finally, they stop, not because they have run out of things to say but because sometimes silence is better than words.

Both human and Anagaran learnt a lot that day at the Forge. They learnt that as peoples they weren’t so different; each had troubles and heroes of their own. But most of all they learnt to trust each other, a trust forged by blood and loyalty.

...................

Jaal inches forwards and pulls her forehead to meet his in a sign of trust, but it was more than trust that made him want to do it. It was the feel of her skin next to his, the sound of her breath, the softness of her hair beneath his fingertips. Merrin felt like a part of him, once lost and forgotten, but now found.

He knows this feeling; it takes him back to when he was young and free on the farms on Aya. No, it is not trust that made him come, nor even thanks for her help in rescuing his family.

It is love.

It is love that courses through his veins and sets his skin on fire, he wants her to be his until the day he dies. He wants to start a family and grow old with this strange alien from the stars.  
Jaal hopes as they sit there in silence, foreheads pressed together that she wants the same…for the universe would be a very empty place without her.


End file.
